Best thing would be if you could post a photo of one or two of these garments (spread out flat would be sufficient).
From the description you quoted, these sound like just...shirts. Or shifts. I don't think "sacque" is a term used for these garments either in that time period or modernly...except that she refers to "a man's sacque coat" though I don't see how that relates to the garments described thereafter. The generic dictionary definition for "sacque" is "a woman's full loose hip-length jacket" (dictionary.com) and what she describes doesn't fit that definition. What is "the VCR?" Claudine >________________________________ >From: WorkroomButtons.com <[email protected]> >To: Historical Costume <[email protected]> >Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 8:29 AM >Subject: [h-cost] Need information on "sacque" garments (NOT the dress) > >Back at the Reed Homestead... we are moving on to the next pile -- stacks and >stacks of shirt-like garments with no closures (other than a few with ties at >the neck). > >We hired a woman in 1995 to start pulling clothing literally out of garbage >bags and start cataloging. (Sadly, we still have pieces from 1809 still in >garbage bags -- yes, the black plastic kind.) She called these shirt-like >garments "sacques" and this is want she wrote about them... > >"...I would like someone after me to write the word "sacque" which is what >we're going to use for the generic term. A sacque is a garment which hangs >from the shoulder down without interruption, without darts, without a waist >seam, so a man's sacque coat is one that was not cut in at the waist. And >that seems to be a generic form for this style if garment, no matter how it's >being used, but as I said before and you got on the VCR I think, these can be >used as a working garment with a skirt, held in place with an apron. They can >be used as a short nightgown for hot weather and when somebody is ill and is >using a bedpan. They can be used over your dress when you're doing your hair >and that's probably about it. Oh, yes, and the other thing is for maternity, >when it's an expandable top for when you're pregnant and obviously can be used >for nursing as well. And nobody has as many as you have." > >We have attempted to locate information about this type of garment, but >clearly we're looking in the wrong places because we're coming up empty. We >can find "saques" certainly but they don't look like ours. > >Any ideas? > >Dede O'Hair >_______________________________________________ >h-costume mailing list >[email protected] >http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume > > > _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
